stylo wrote:Is there usually a clear enough path when riding up the inclines or will there be bodies with bikes littered everywhere (me possibly being one of them LOL).

There will be lots of people who are out to fund raise that don't have much cycling experience, and some of those willfind the hills too difficult. Some will stop before they get in people's way, others will try to struggle on and fade intounpredictable death wobbles. You just have to be aware enough to give them plenty of space - and there's usually enough for that.

It's not a race, but there will be some riders treating it like that who can threaten everyone else's safety by invading the space you're trying to give the less confident riders. Inconsiderate riders can be every bit as unpredictable and dangerous as the strugglers.

This year, it looks like they're going to control the descent into RNP at Waterfall with Police escorts, and that might make the climb from the Port Hacking River up to Stanwell Tops a bit more congested than in the past. Waiting for the crowd to disperse might be a good tactic there.

If everyone takes a large dose of patience with them for the ride, nobody is gonna get hurt and we'll all have fun.

WombatK

Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us -Jerry Garcia

There were quite a few stacks on the road descending into RNP the year I did it, with ambo's attending. My hands were cramping from riding the brakes by the time I got to the bottom, as we weren't allowed to pass the motorcycle escort.

The climbs out are good. Little flat sections on which to recover right when you need them

Even though we were required to keep left on the road, I found I either rode the centre line or slightly right, just to buffer against less experienced riders who would sometimes change lines suddenly without indicating or doing a head check.

Very scenic - you'll enjoy it. Better to start as early as possible, the headwinds gain strength later in the day.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. -- Galatians 6:9 ESV

Enjoyed the ride immensely, despite starting around 7.45am. Was riding with a couple of other guys, one who was a little slower, and we stayed together keeping a very modest pace until Waterfall, though the congestion played a part in that too.

Leaving Waterfall saw the inconsiderate riders put up their hands and despite going at a good speed on the descent, the ones who sit right on your shoulder or buzz past inches away made concentration on the descent a must, especially when they were several abreast on the wrong side of the road (most disappointing after the loudspeaker announcements at the summit advising BOTH sides of the road were open). On the uphill to Bald Hill, there were plenty of slow riders and walkers on the bigger hills but on the whole they were pretty well behaved and kept left.

A hot day, which I thought was well organised. Compared to the Sydney Cycle, I found it much safer and the sightseeing was fabulous (countryside through the park, ocean along the coast and quite a few nice looking girls.... ).

I had a really good day as well, left syd park just after 6 so has a pretty good run out of the city not to slow, guess the descents we abit better earlier we were single file which was nice, would have been a bit hairy in a bunch. Did the course in just over 3hours and am really happy with that was aiming for 3.5hrs. Overall awesome day and I'll be doing it again and try and get some friends to come along next time.

sogood wrote:What was the wind like this year? There were some horrific ones in past years.

Winds was NW at the start for me (around 7:30 by the time we got through the start crawl), and wasNE from Stanwell Park south - but mostly light (around 20 kph or less). A tailwind is always better thana headwind

Temperature was a bit on the too warm side - more people seemed to be flagging on hills thanlast year.

The start from St Peters was dreadfully slow - averaged about 5 kph until the Cooks River. Some people(mostly young jocks) took to the traffic lane to queue jump around the throng. They may havethought it was legal to do so, but I suspect they were flouting a police direction to use the reservedlane.

Whether illegal or not, they just made life difficult for everyone else when they eventually got to an intersection where the police patiently waved them back into the lane. We can only hope that one day they'll realise that very often things works better when we co-operate rather than compete.

Those tribulations were soon forgotten once the field spread out a bit. I really enjoyed the sectionthrough the national park's rainforest. You just don't get to appreciate how much cooler that is whendriving in a car. And you don't hear the water bubbling down the creek, nor birds calling etc.,.

If you've never done it, do yourself a favour and join in next year.

Lastly, bucketloads of thanks to all the volunteers sweating it out by the side of the road to makeit such a great success.

WombatK

Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us -Jerry Garcia

Wow sounds like the ride has changed quite a bit since I did it 3 years ago. We had terrible head winds and it wasnt the best of weather. I also notice comments on slowing down and escorts in the RNP. Sounds like a lot more traffic (cyclist) leaving at the same time??

If you can't explain it simply, then you don't understand it well enough.

Managed to get in a little early, left at about 6:50. Still very slow, more so than the past 3-4 years, till Cooks River, with the invariable peanut gallery coming into play along the Princes Hwy very early. Nobody got hit, but it was a close run thing a few times. The wind was anything from NW to NE, and gooooooooood to have behind you. Plenty of yo-yoing* going on heading out of the RNP. Only saw one Borat (with shorts on too, so the effect was negated), one clipstack, one clown (no, literally, a clown, on an MTB, complete with cut-down yellow gumboots for clown shoes), and one local walking on the cycleway section threatening to "smash the next **** who nearly runs me over". Ah, Thirroul smackies, how I've not missed ye.

Was it just me or did everyone with a "manroland" shirt on seem to need a wide berth and a lesson in keeping left??

Kept my eye out for our resident assistance-guy BFV, but no luck.

Jim

* I picked a nice pace by my HR, and watched people blow by, then slowly fall back behind as they blow up, and repeat a half dozen times. Fun for all the family.

familyguy wrote:Managed to get in a little early, left at about 6:50. Still very slow, more so than the past 3-4 years, till Cooks River, with the invariable peanut gallery coming into play along the Princes Hwy very early. Nobody got hit, but it was a close run thing a few times. The wind was anything from NW to NE, and gooooooooood to have behind you. Plenty of yo-yoing* going on heading out of the RNP. Only saw one Borat (with shorts on too, so the effect was negated), one clipstack, one clown (no, literally, a clown, on an MTB, complete with cut-down yellow gumboots for clown shoes), and one local walking on the cycleway section threatening to "smash the next **** who nearly runs me over". Ah, Thirroul smackies, how I've not missed ye.

Was it just me or did everyone with a "manroland" shirt on seem to need a wide berth and a lesson in keeping left??

Kept my eye out for our resident assistance-guy BFV, but no luck.

Jim

* I picked a nice pace by my HR, and watched people blow by, then slowly fall back behind as they blow up, and repeat a half dozen times. Fun for all the family.

I noticed the same thing, there seemed to be lots of them too!

I also cant count the amount of times i nearly came unstuck by zig zag riders listening to ipods. I was getting frustrated that my "passing right" comments were going un-noticed until i realised the common theme amongst them were the white headphones

Despite all this it's still a great event and its probably what got me into more serious cycling a couple of years ago.

The start was frustratingly slow. I have no idea why as the numbers are capped so therefore the same as previous years. I dont think i clipped into my pedals until west botany st!

If any of the queue jumpers or breakaways that take off into the traffic lanes are reading this, don't ride next year, join tour de france or something cause you guys are the reason we can't shake the un-necessary tags given to us by motorists, i'd hope you could get clipped by a car if it didnt mean injuring the rest of us doing the right thing.

Great ride today with Dave (big friendly vegan) but a busy one for mobile support. First bloke out cut his tire right through, and had to wait for a new one. Few flat tires on the way to Engadine station, including one gal who requested a spanking for being a bad girl. Few km later, about twenty motorbikers are riding past, and one bloke's exhaust manifold decides to blow, so I helped him push his iron houre off the road. 200m from Engadine station, and a bloke tells us a lady's blown out her tire a few hundred meters back. Head back there, and the Dutch gal's tire's exploded off the rim! Lame, so he patched it up with good ol duct tape, and she was on her way. Got passed by two blokes on BMX bikes, the 'pedal-philes' team, and by this stage we were almost holding the red lantern, riding through 'slightly moving' traffic, and somehow our Dutch mate caught up. Down into Royal national park (which thankfully didn't have any body's littering the road), and a bloke was walking with horrible cramps. One berocca later, and he decided to just catch the sweeper bus back in.

By the time we had lunch, rode a bit, changed another chick's tire, and helped another dude with cramps, we were riding with red lanterns under the seats. Rolled up to the lookout, where Dave decided to eat half the oranges, then drop his chain up a hill. Nice strong descent into Thirroul, where some bloke (whose mum obviously didn't nourish his p*ssflap existence enough when he was young) decided he didn't know how to signal, then we rolled onto the bridge. Passed the two BMXers again towards the end, and congratulated them on their efforts.

All in all a good day. Got passed by a bazillion motorbikes, and put up a strong decent ride, albeit doing a 60k TT yesterday! Cheers guys!

Addictr3 wrote:Wow sounds like the ride has changed quite a bit since I did it 3 years ago. We had terrible head winds and it wasnt the best of weather...

It was always vary. At least it wasn't a case of rain in the 1st half and then headwind and sunburn in the 2nd half. Had to endure that pattern in two of the years. Glad to hear there's a tailwind this year.

first time run and wow it was great. think i saw BFV near ikea helping a flat. but yes very congested run till cooks. A couple of near misses from riders not looking where they were going. Had a great run from Clifton till the bike path at thiroul and some how was leading the pack at one stage.Thanks to the organisers and volunteers. Cant wait for next year.

I had great fun on the ride yesterday. Thanks to all the volunteers who did a great job.

We started at 6:25AM. I had a ball through the RNP, where I tagged onto the back of two "Perisher" riders and set a cracking pace until they tired on the last hill before the drinks break. Had some idiot pull out to the right without looking around Thirroul somewhere as I was coming up to pass him going around 15KM/H faster. Luckily I could hit the anchors and avoid him in time, but you'd think that people who own a roadie would at least understand the basics like checking over your shoulder...

Speaking of anchors, I was happy with the way my stock 105 brakes performed on the downhill sections. Some guys on the train back to Sydney said they saw a mountain bike with smoke pouring off his rear disc brake on the way down. They thought someone had a smoke machine going on the side of the road, that's how much smoke there was.

Great day yesterday. Thank you for all volunteers.Congested 7.00am start, manage only around 18km in the first hour.I found newbies with hybrids are actually OK. It's guys who thinks that they're pro that's annoying and dangerous.Nice second leg, specially with the help of tailwind. I saw two accident scene on national park descend

Slow start (AT) 7:15 and the run became acceptable by the Grand Parade considering it's not a race and there were almost 10,000 people.

The first ascent up to Waterfall Station was acceptable to those thinking of doing it next year.

The descents would have been great, if we weren't required to ride the brakes - probably for good reason. There were riders of all levels of experience so it's really up to you to be careful and to get around them and the on the uphill sections.

The ride out of the RNP is similar to the ride out of Berowra (Pac Hwy side). There were a couple of steep ascents (Bald Hill?) just past the Sea Cliff Bridge and that really got the blood pumping ! Lots of bodies on the side of the road there!

Last 10-12 kms was very nice and undulating and fast and really a niec way to finish the day.

All in all, nice day, it was not too hot (cooler would have been nice) and thanks to all the volunteers if you are reading.

ps. not too happy with the $15 lunch pack ! There were a lot of food stalls available!

Another pleasant â€˜Gong ride. The start was slow, as always, there are 10,000 bikes to get on the road after all. Just relax and go with the flow. By the time we were heading through Brighton Le Sands alongside Botany Bay, the crowds had dispersed enough to safely wind up to a comfortable cruising pace. It was already warm â€“ a sign that it could be tough going later in the day when the temperature really got up. I was carrying 750ml of water and planned to fill up at every watering station. I actually drank more than that, filling up at each station , drinking half the bottle, and filling it again before heading off. In all I think I drank around five litres.

The run through the National Park is always a highlight of the ride. No cars, rolling terrain, just the sounds of the bush to surround us. The noticeably cooler air as we descended to the river was a nice bonus. Most people were fairly sensible on the descent, although there were a few kamakazis as usual. A quick stop at Red Cedar flat to refill and eat an muesli bar. A couple of people near me discovered that sitting under trees near the river was nice, but finding leeches clinging to their backsides when the stood up to leave was less so. After the cool and shade of the Park, that last little climb up past the Otford Pie Shop was hot, hard work.

Another refill at Bald Hill, and off down the coast. This was generally a good run, cooler than I expected, apart from the climb at Austinmer which was another hot slog. Passed a trike on that climb who was grinding up so slowly even the walkers were passing him. But he was happily chatting to all and sundry and having a good time. The heat certainly did take its toll though, as there were lots of people walking the hills, some even before the â€˜muffin stopâ€™ at Loftus. Plenty succumbed to cramp later â€“ saw one poor chap seized by a cramp as he put his foot down to stop at a traffic light. He just collapsed to the ground, fortunately onto the grass verge. The finish at Stuart Park was bright and lively as always, complete with its traditional muddy patches to ensure we had muddy shoes to go with our hot, sweaty bodies.

Special thanks to all the volunteers, who were unfailingly cheerful during what was for them a long, hot day.

Sitting in the shade at the finish eating lunch, the gent sitting next to me turned to his companion and said, "Man, I need to get another seat. The blood rushing back into my pen1is feels like I'm piss1ing myself"

I had a good run into woolongong. First time doing the ride. So fast down into the rnp. People were blocking the road on the way up out of the rnp. That was annoying. Took me 3.5 hours whick included breaks. I had fun

Who is online

About the Australian Cycling Forums

The largest cycling discussion forum in Australia for all things bike; from new riders to seasoned bike nuts, the Australian Cycling Forums are a welcoming community where you can ask questions and talk about the type of bikes and cycling topics you like.